de GRISOGONO OTTURATORE

Conceived by Fawaz Gruosi and combining a dynamic display and improved legibility, the inventive OTTURATORE design raises the art of horological complications to a new level of inventive excellence. The centerpiece of this highly original concept is a high-performance mobile “sequencer”, duly patented by de GRISOGONO, developed by simulation and numerical calculations. Its OTTURATORE design confirms de GRISOGONO’s determination to shun the beaten track in favor of genuine innovation.

A novel concept in the de GRISOGONO style and spirit only makes sense if it embodies a good measure of bold design, refined aesthetics, expert workmanship and contemporary sophistication. From this complex and demanding vision the OTTURATORE was born. Daring design, subtle detailing, technical excellence and eye-catching display – the OTTURATORE’s stylish lines hide an unusually complex mechanism.

Along with the hour and minute hands at center, the OTTURATORE displays on demand the seconds, the date, the phases of the moon and the movement’s power reserve. Its greatest originality lies in the selective display of each of these discrete indications. Classic Haute Horlogerie timepieces usually fit all their complications together on the dial, seriously detracting from the latter’s instant legibility. Fawaz Gruosi naturally took, or rather pioneered, another approach, simplifying the dial layout for much improved legibility. His way of doing away with dial clutter was to devise and build a totally original, mechanically driven sequential display selector. Thanks to the OTTURATORE’s mobile dial, the wearer chooses which indication he wants to consult and his OTTURATORE will display it – seconds, date, phases of the moon or power reserve – while hiding the three others from view.

Patented by de GRISOGONO, the OTTURATORE’s basic feature is a mobile bidirectional dial (or sequential display selector) actioned by simple pressure on a pair of mechanical pushpieces. The increment of rotation of such a device depends on the number of complications or indications of the watch; the OTTURATORE’s increment of rotation is 90°. While the principle seems simple enough, its design is totally unprecedented: it propels watchmaking technology from the sphere of slow speeds to that of hyper velocities.

Up to now, horological complications focused in the main on some specific function, usually a matter of actioning a simple sequence of gears or springs. The OTTURATORE truly embodies another dimension in time. A slight pressure on the pushpieces – whose travel is of the order of one millimeter – is enough to harness enough power to drive the mobile dial (or sequential selector) by 90° in a few dozen milliseconds, equivalent to a linear speed at the edge of the dial of something like one meter per second. By comparison, triggering a mechanical chronograph takes hundreds of milliseconds. In a standard mechanical construction, a finger pressing a pushpiece for a brief instant exerts insufficient force to set in motion mechanical components with strong inertial resistance. The OTTURATORE’s sequential selector can achieve this because in a few dozen milliseconds it can action fifteen dynamic functions (controls, connecting and disconnecting operations, mechanical memory, gears and so forth) while taking into account power drain, inertia and friction, The complex interplay of the movements involved generates counterforces, a bit like a car instantly accelerating to its top speed then immediately braking to a full stop with absolute precision on a predetermined line.

de GRISOGONO’s exclusive sequential display module comprises over 100 individual components. It includes its own handwound or selfwinding mainspring and barrel to provide the necessary reserve power. A second, more traditional mainspring-and-barrel unit gives the movement a 44-hour power reserve. Since innovative mechanical solutions call for contemporary Haute Horlogerie design, the OTTURATORE’s substantial cambered rectangular case features a pair of large red gold pushpieces and a crown, all in 18K red gold with the latter bearing the de GRISOGONO crest. Designed specifically for de GRISOGONO’s novel approach to time displays and built in two parts – lower plate, upper mobile sequence selector and upper plate, the exclusive opaline dial design is notable for its contrasts and plurality of levels.

The case’s very contemporary character contrasts elegantly with a cobbled “Clou de Paris” pattern in the grand tradition, as do the finely proportioned “dauphine” style hour and minute hands in 18K red gold with the strict geometry of the case.

The “hidden face” of de GRISOGONO’s new design is protected by a cambered sapphire crystal, revealing movement components blackened by a process exclusive to de GRISOGONO. The transparent case back provides a revealing look at the heart of a timepiece that sets pioneering standards of elegance in luxury, innovation in refinement and excellence in performance.

The development of the sequential display selector proved such a challenge that de GRISOGONO’s research team had to resort to innovative, sophisticated techniques such as simulation and numerical calculations. Adding mathematics to software to apply physical laws, techniques of this kind are commonly used in the research labs of the aeronautics and automotive industries. Using models incorporating multiple variables, special programs of this kind serve to optimize mechanical operations and functions. Were it not for them, designing the OTTURATORE would have been a hopeless task. The most expert watchmaker can of course gauge the movement of watch hands but he would be at a loss to master the dual relationships between fleeting mechanical functions lasting a few milliseconds.